Hour At The Museum

Chan Hampe's latest exhibition is held in two spaces - its usual home at Raffles Hotel and a new location in a Geylang shophouse. The artists featured in Common Ground seek to find the threads that bind Singaporeans as one and what it is that makes us Singaporean - from National Service to objects we experienced while growing up.

Creation Of Ah Dam (2015)

By Eugene Soh, plexiglass, 80x120cm

In this parody of Michelangelo's The Creation Of Adam featuring the artist's tongue-in-cheek wit, the titular Ah Dam reaches out for a carrot at a wet market. Soh had parodied Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper in a photo, relocating the scene to a kopitiam.

Objek - Siri Jati Diri #1 (2015)

PHOTO: AHMAD ABU BAKAR

By Ahmad Abu Bakar, ceramic, aluminium and wax cord, 25x25x74cm

The Malaysian artist reflects on his experience being based in a foreign country (Singapore) and home away from home and channels that experience in this artwork, which appears to be an alien, makeshift phone pining for communication.

This Land (2015)

PHOTO: ESMOND LOH

By Esmond Loh, oil and acrylic on canvas, 152x122cm

Loh, who specialises in hyperrealist paintings, considers the uniquely Singaporean male experience of National Service through a dynamic monochrome self-portrait. He is currently doing his National Service.

Swee Chai (2015)

PHOTO: ALVIN ONG

By Alvin Ong, oil on canvas, 100x155cm

Ong went to London to paint political exile Dr Ang Swee Chai's portrait. Despite Dr Ang's tumultuous history, the portrait is simple and does not reflect any political agenda.

Transient (2013)

PHOTO: ERIC CHAN

By Eric Chan, oil on linen, 120x120cm

Malaysian Chan's work paints layer upon layer. He considers the universality of humanity's shared mortality, bound and linked by our daily internal struggles and physical decay, reflected in the work by the damage in the painting to reveal the increasingly obvious canvas beneath.

Moves On Spice (2015)

PHOTO: KUMARI NAHAPPAN

By Kumari Nahappan, wood, canvas, bronze, 68x68x8cm

The artist is best known for her chilli sculpture that currently sits outside the National Museum. Here, she creates a chess set with whimsical chilli characters that are now her signature.

Ng arranges items from her childhood in a pyramid, which looks like a shrine. The items are perched precariously on edges or in danger of falling, perhaps suggesting the temporal nature of youth and memory.

The Straits Times

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